Pennsylvania Certification Board

Choice Of Certification Path

The good thing about IT certifications is that it’s not that difficult to get them from various providers. Just because you start with a certification from one provider, it doesn’t mean you’re stuck with that provider. Sure, some of the more advanced ones require an earlier certification from that provider, but many of them simply have experience requirements.

Another reason that there is a good choice of certs in the IT industry is that there are several certifications for a particular technology. You’re not locked in to one cert if you’re a software developer. Network engineers have various certifications they can pursue, just like information security experts, database administrators and support staff.

For these reasons, I think there is a wide variety of paths you can take, for whatever role in the IT industry you’re in.

Which Certification Path Is For Me?

We’ve outlined a few points on certification paths and how different providers work. Now, you might be wondering, which one is for you? We can answer this by answering a few questions:

Which field of IT are you in, or which field would you like to get into? This will determine, or at least narrow down, your choices of certifications and the resulting path.

What is your level of experience? Some certifications are targeted towards new starters, others are targeted towards experts – with many in between.

How far do you wish to go with getting certified? Some IT professionals wish to get all of the certifications they can, and which could be as many as 20. Others are content with only one or two. This will determine which path you wish to take.

Answering these questions about yourself and your IT career will help to understand which certification path is for you.

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